If we look at the scenario given by FAO in 2011, Rural women spend more time than urban women and men in reproductive and household work, including time spent obtaining water and fuel, caring for children and processing food. This is because of poor rural infrastructure and services as well as culturally assigned roles that severely limit women’s participation in employment opportunities.

The jobs of rural women who are employed tend to be shorter term, more precarious and less protected than those of rural men and urban people. The lack of flexible hours to accommodate family work combined with wage and job discrimination and limited representation of women in workers’ organizations are partly responsible for this scenario. It’s Humanity Foundation (IHF) has been working to provide quality education to underprivileged children in impoverished locations of Bangladesh since 2010. One of the major hurdles of the IHF education project was low student retention rate, which was less than 30%. After facing the challenge for two consecutive years, a research team was sent out for a community survey in order to identify the root cause of student drop out despite providing free education. The research findings were heart wrenching! Families send their children to daily labor work taking them out of schools. It was found out that families in those regions are solely dependent on men of the house who are the only earning members of the family. Due to conservative mindset and social stigma, women were not allowed to work outside home or earn. Therefore, as soon as their children become older than 8-10 years, they were sent to work for extra earning.